Electron-rich carbon nanorings as macrocyclic hosts for fullerenes

摘要

Host molecules of fullerenes have been intensively investigated in recent years for their roles as separators of specific fullerenes as well as building blocks of well-ordered fullerene-based nanostructures. After the discovery of the complexation of fullerenes with azacrown compounds and y-cyclodextrin, a range of host molecules for constructing fullerene-containing electroactive nanomaterials has been developed. Because fullerenes are π-conjugated spherical molecules, convex-concave π-π interactions between a fullerene and a π-conjugated tube-like structure have also been envisioned to form much more stable complexes. In fact, it was found that fullerenes can be included inside single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs).